It's a gray morning, drizzling rain, and a helluva way to mark my 73rd birthday. The sky should be blue with drifting puffs of cloud, temps in the mid-70s, with a nice breeze blowing away the humidity. Instead I get this stuff. Yuk.

On the other hand, a gray day is better than no day at all, I suppose, for most people my age are dead, and while this blog demonstrates that I apparently have too much time on my hands (according to my much-younger brother) it's better than having no time at all. So, weather and time be damned, I'll celebrate 73 years.

I've always tried to be appropriately modest about my birthdays, giving an "aw, shucks, you shouldn't have" response to gifts and cards, but that's a sham. I don't know what I'd do if no one wished me a Happy Birthday. That might be one of the definitions of loneliness, to have no one light a birthday candle for you. That would be a gray day, for sure.

Every year I make this same resolution, but I'll try even harder this year: to remember the birthdays of friends and family, and offer them a Happy Birthday greeting. And a happy birthday to me, too.